Commodity

June 21, 2008June 21, 2008

Give ’em a phone

Why don’t coffee growers get more for their beans when world prices are higher? First off, I had to admit, I didn’t know that they didn’t. But apparently even against a background of rapidly rising prices, growers do not get much more. A new study of coffee growers in Uganda explains that rising prices brings out so-called “ddebe boys”, part-time coffee traders who “insert themselves between farmers and larger permanent traders and mills”. The ddebe is a 20 kg tin that they use to purchase coffee from farmers who are ignorant of the true market prices. The obvious solution is to give farmers access to current market information.

Marcel Fafchamps and Ruth Vargas Hill, who conducted this study say they don’t know whether this would solve the problem, but that it deserves to be looked at. I agree. There are already NGOs working with Ugandan farmers via mobile phones, and we know that phones make markets more efficient, so I hope someone gets going on this soon. As for the ddebe boys, I expect they too will find a way to make a living. Maybe by sending SMS spam?

June 20, 2008June 20, 2008

Nibbles: Agave, Fruits, Rotation, Potato, Dogs, Banana, Egypt, Sagittaria latifolia, Cooking

Tequila!
Fruitipedia.
Rotation rediscovered.
Japan potatoes diversify.
The genetics of dog behaviour.
Freakonomist pleads for information. Is the banana doomed, or what?
Ancient Egyptians stored grain and wine.
3,600 year old wapato tubers found in Canada. Wawhat?
Sarko wants UNESCO to protect French cuisine. Yeah because on its own it just doesn’t have a chance.

June 19, 2008June 20, 2008

Nibbles: Bananas, Wheat, Cameroon, Bees, Eden, Millennium Villages, Organic, Yam, Ag origins, Apricots

Compare and contrast the banana and the Big Mac. Dan Koeppel takes it to the masses.
Lamenting the loss of “amber waves of grain”. Ingrate.
Cameroon’s agriculture vulnerable to climate change. I’ll alert the media.
Look what I got you for National Pollinator Week next week; a World Checklist of Bees. Neat-o.
Celebrate food and farmers in Eden.
“The core of the strategy is a short-term provision of improved seeds suited to the local environment and fertilizers like Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and urea accompanied by advice on how to use them.” Sounds familiar…
Meanwhile, in non-Millennium Villages: “While his maize cobs were smaller than others, the seed was of a much higher quality; the fibre of his cotton was also much longer.”
Japanese yam fields in peril. Yams as in Dioscorea or sweet potato or what? So annoying.
Neolithic myths?
California apricot grower explores Central Asia, comes up trumps. Jeremy comments: CandyCots? I think I want to be sick.

June 18, 2008

Land of silk and honey

We’ve had another enquiry about silk-making in Kenya, which is one of our most commented-on stories, so I was prompted to go and look for more information. I hadn’t really taken in before that the reason the projects promote bees and silkworms together is that (some?) African silk moths eat the leaves of Acacias, whose flowers are a source of nectar for bees. Win-win.

Anyway, back to the search for further information. There really isn’t that much. Luigi had already pointed to UNDP’s project, which doesn’t look as if it has changed much since then. New Agriculturalist had an article on sericulture a little more than a year ago, Kambogo Women’s Group is raising silkworms and feeding them on mulberry leaves, somewhat different from the wild silkworms feeding on acacia that are the focus of UNDP and IFAD efforts in Mwingi District. I also turned up some rough TV news footage here; it is unedited and pretty blurry, but it gives a rough idea of some of the things being done.

IFAD’s funding seems to have ended in 2004. People in Kenya clearly want to know more. So why isn’t more information available? And just what is the current state of the silk business in Kenya?

One of our readers must know more. Share, please.

June 17, 2008February 27, 2009

Nibbles: No-dig, Joe, Gritty Veg, Insect food, Forests, Finger millet, Bees

No-dig, (almost) no-water surplus veggies in Lala land. Via.
Smell the coffee and wake up.
Yet more urban agriculture reviving neighbourhood culture.
Giant grasshopper is good for you.
And speaking of Google Earth (see below): you can use it to track disappearing forests as well as disappearing gourds.
“Our mother who grinds ragi at home is far more superior to our father who rules this country.” Finger millet makes a comeback in India.
Aussie report urges honey bee protection. Good on ya, mate.